The Darkness Within
by OtomostheCrazy
Summary: This story takes place after the events of Sonic Generations. Sonic and friends have just come back from their latest adventure, but as usual, there's always something out there to cause trouble. This time; however, they will face some unusual enemies.
1. The Darkness Within Part 1

DISCLAIMER: All of the characters and places from the Sonic the Hedgehog Videogames and/or comics belongs to their respective owners. They do not belong to me.

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This story takes place after the events of Sonic Generations. It involves a lot of different parts of the story merging into one giant turn of events! It's my first fan fiction. Please enjoy it!

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Everyone was happy, they had just defeated the Time Eater, and said goodbye to their friends of the Past, and they continued with the birthday party. Sonic was having a great time with his friends once again… at the end of the day, everyone left to go back home and sleep. Now Sonic the Hedgehog was alone and looking up to the stars. He slowly drifted into slumber with a grin on his face, knowing that he and his friends had won once more…

A dark figure stood a small distance away from the sleeping hedgehog. The figure walked over to Sonic, being careful not to wake him. It held its hand out, as if it was holding something in its palm. A dark aura emitted from Sonic and soon started to stream and accumulate into the palm of the figure's hand, creating a dark blue orb.

Together with the orb, the dark figure faded away into the night's darkness, leaving the hedgehog to sleep peacefully… The figure then appeared to the sleeping bodies of Sonic's friends, repeating the process that he had done on Sonic himself. He easily obtained every one of their dark auras, until he came to two problems. Team Chaotix and Shadow the Hedgehog. Those people posed as a challenge for the figure, for it knew that they would be much more alert than the others.

The figure decided to accept the challenges and started with Team Chaotix, the three-person detective agency, consisting of Vector, Charmy, and Espio. The first two dark auras would be easy to take, but Espio would pose much of a problem. Espio the chameleon is a ninja, and is much more alert than his two companions. Add that to his ability to camouflage into his surroundings, and not only would he be challenging, he would be much more deadly. Nevertheless, the figure proceeded to their headquarters.

The figure heard the sounds of snores and sleeping sighs. Each member of Team Chaotix, had their own room and each was sleeping. The figure started with Vector, doing the same process as before. It then proceeded to Charmy, doing the exact same thing… Espio suddenly awoke to the feeling that something was wrong. He sensed a dark aura, and used his camouflage to blend into his surroundings. Espio climbed the walls onto the ceiling and sensed that the aura was approaching his room's door. He had sensed that the aura was accompanied by other dark auras, but somehow the others felt… familiar. His door opened, but he only saw one person, a figure that was shrouded in a darkness that exceeded that of night. He watched as the figure looked around the room, searching for something.

Espio decided not to ponder about what it was that person was looking for, and wanted to render the figure unconscious, then send them to the authorities. Espio snuck up on the figure from behind and tried to knock them out using a small but strong chop to the back of the neck. The attack missed as the figure disappeared from his sight and appeared behind him. Espio used a back kick to try to attack the figure again, but it exited the room and started to flee. Espio proceeded to follow and subdue it.

The figure stopped fleeing, and Espio confronted it. It revealed two orbs, one dark green, and the other a tainted shade of yellow. The figure dropped the two orbs, which seemed to melt into the ground upon contact. Espio watched as two other figures formed. He was in total shock; the two figures looked almost exactly like Vector and Charmy, with the exception of the white as milk eyes. Soon Espio was in combat with the two copies, dodging their attacks, while trying to keep himself calm.

As soon as he saw an opening to escape the copies and attack the figure, he took it. Espio dashed towards the figure and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Despite Espio's speed, the figure was able to block all of his attacks. The figure suddenly vanished in the middle of their fight. Espio looked around to find where the figure had gone, and suddenly noticed the dark energy from the copies becoming compressed. He turned around to see the Vector copy preparing to launch the Charmy copy like a cannonball.

Charmy was launched at Espio with enough force to blast through a building with little damage to the Charmy copy itself. Espio had just barely dodged the attack when the figure had reappeared and lifted the chameleon by the head. The two copies came to assist the figure by grabbing Espio's arms and legs. The figure proceeded with his usual process.

Espio started to feel light-headed, then drowsy, and soon the rest of his body began to feel weak… Just before the figure was able to complete the process, it was kicked by something strong. It looked around to see what had attacked, only to get battered by more attacks. While it was recovering from that last volley of attacks, it saw that the two copies were sent flying by a black and red blur. As the two landed, the blur had stopped and started to speak.

"I don't know who you are, but I sense that you have a chaos emerald. Hand it over, or else."

Espio weakly looked up and saw the mysterious person. It took a while, but Espio realized who the person was.

"Shadow!"

"Don't mistake my motives. I'm here for the emerald, and nothing more. I could care less about what happens to you", said the black and red hedgehog.

The figure stood up again, with the two copies appearing on both sides of it. Shadow prepared for a fight. Espio struggled, but got up and joined Shadow for the fight… Before the battle even began what seemed like the figure's head looked towards the East. It saw that morning had come, ruining its chance to proceed with its plans this night. It reached out its hands to the two copies, and they reverted to their orb forms in its hands. The two orbs melted into its body, and one of them was replaced with a big green chaos emerald, which was shattered by the possessor. It threw the shards toward the black and red hedgehog and then disappeared.

Shadow caught all the shards in a blink of an eye, becoming frustrated at the fact that he would have to go back to where he was coming from in order to repair the emerald.

"Thank you Shadow. If you had not been here, I do not know what that person would have done. " The chameleon then gave Shadow a bow of respect.

"I told you not to mistake my motives. (Sigh) What WAS that thing?"

"I do not know, but I have sensed immense darkness with and within it."

"Well, whatever it was, it shattered this chaos emerald. Why would it do this, and why did it just give the shards to me?"

Before either of them even had a chance to think about it, they heard some familiar voices yelling out Espio's name. Espio immediately knew whom the voices belonged to.

"Vector! Charmy!" exclaimed Espio. Espio joined up with his teammates/friends. All the members of the Chaotix detective agency were now together.

"What happened, Espio? We heard a loud noise and couldn't find you anywhere!" said Charmy in his always loud and excited voice.

Espio decided to tell Charmy and Vector what had happened, but did not want them to worry about a knew and unusual enemy, so he decided to tell parts of the truth until a time comes when it is necessary to tell them the entire story.

"I was attacked by an intruder that I could not immediately identify, but judging from their height, they may have been a human."

Charmy then asked, "Why were you attacked?"

"The intruder had snuck into our Head Quarters, so I tried to chase it off or knock it out, but it fled here."

"Why didn't you stop chasing them, after they ran away?"

" I had a feeling that the intruder had stolen something of value from us, so I pursued them."

After hearing this, Vector joined into the conversation rather angrily.

"WHAT! What did they steal! They better not have taken that new radiophone in the office! I just got that thing!"

"Calm down, Vector. I do not know what exactly they took, but I have a bad feeling about this. What do you think, Shadow?"

It was at this time that the trio noticed that Shadow was gone… Shadow was making his way back to the GUN base. He was thinking about the creature that he had fought. That THING was unnatural, and although it gave him shards, it just gave him a Chaos Emerald without a struggle.

Shadow did not have long to ponder about what the creature was, for when he came to the GUN base, all that was left of it were burnt ruins, scraps of metal that were once vehicles, and corpses of the poor soldiers that could not escape, nor survive, whatever had happened at the area.

Shadow searched around the area to find clues to what had happened there. As he was searching, he noticed something abnormal within the building's remains. He ran over to the abnormal thing to inspect it. When he got there he found a sort of containment pod with the bullet-proof glass door with a big hole in it. Something about this pod seemed very familiar, though. He inspected it a bit more, checking every detail of its design.

Soon Shadow had come to a realization as to what this pod was.

"This pod… I remember this! This was the containment pod that Eggman released me from! What is it doing here?"

Before Shadow could think of any possible answers to any of his questions, he heard the noise of a missile. He easily dodged it and escaped its explosion range. He looked up to see that Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik was sitting in the Egg Mobile, an invention that Eggman seems to constantly use. Next to the Doctor was Rouge the Bat, who was being restrained by a giant robotic arm that was protruding from the Egg Mobile.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Shadow the Hedgehog", said Eggman in his usual tone of voice.

"Eggman! What are you doing here! And why is Rouge your captive!"

"I caught this bat trying to steal the Chaos Emerald I have in my possession. As for the reason why I am here, well… that's classified. I don't know why you're here, Shadow, but you've saved me the trouble of finding you, myself. Now I can get you out of y way once and for all!"

"Hmph. And what makes you think that you can defeat ME?"

"Don't worry, you'll soon find out."

"Enough of this nonsense. You know that you can't beat me, so just release Rouge and hand over that Chaos Emerald."

"Hmmm. I have a better idea."

The Egg Mobile suddenly teleports to Shadow's blind spot. A second robotic arm quickly revealed itself from the Egg Mobile and knock Shadow a fair distance, forcing him to drop the Emerald Shards he had.

"What's this? Chaos Emerald Shards? I think I'll take these if you don't mind."

The second robotic arm scooped up all of the shards and gave them to Eggman. As he placed them in his pocket, a beeping sound came from his vehicle.

"Hm? Drat! I was hoping to destroy you now, Shadow, but it seems that I don't have time to do that just yet. So long, Shadow!"

Shadow tried to use a homing attack to stop the Doctor, but Eggman flew too high up for Shadow to reach. It did not matter though. Shadow will just follow him until he lands. He can't stay in the air forever…


	2. The Darkness Within Part 2

DISCLAIMER: All the characters that are from the Sonic TV shows, comics, or video games do NOT belong to me (you probably knew that already). They belong to their respective owner(s).

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Hi! It's time for part 2 of this fan fiction! Oh. And for those of you who've already read. All will be explained soon enough. MWAHAHAHAHAHA! Enjoy!

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The day was going as usual for everyone, Sonic was running around, Tails was working on some upgrades for the Tornado, Knuckles was guarding the Master Emerald, etc. Soon, however, events started to happen, and those events led all of them to one spot.

Everyone was there, with the exception of Shadow. They all had a confused look on their faces. Everyone started talking about why they were all in the same place. Ever person there had his or her own reason. Sonic was there because he saw everyone else gathered up here, Tails was told that there was a place that sells good plane parts around the area, Knuckles felt a strange energy coming from this area, Rouge was following a treasure map that led to this area, etc. They started to feel that they weren't all in the same spot by coincidence.

They talked for moments on end, trying to make sense of their predicament, until they were all surrounded by some kind of barrier. A maniacal laugh was heard.

"Eggman!" exclaimed Sonic, seeing who had trapped them.

"Hohohohohohoho! Well, it didn't take THAT long to find a way out of that Time/Space Limbo, now did it? I can't believe I didn't think of using this sooner! I could've used it to upgrade the Time Eater, but as they say: 'Better late than never!' Hohohohohohohoho!"

The group of Mobians tried everything they could think of to escape the barrier, to no avail. Dr. Eggman laughed even more and told them that their efforts were useless. When he was finished with his laughter, he pressed a button that summoned two more machines to accompany his Egg Mobile. These two machines took different sides of the barrier. They looked like they were charging up for an attack.

Noticing this, the Mobians frantically continued to try to escape the barrier, with no success. Eggman laughed again when the machines were charged.

"This is the end! Farewell, nuisances!"

Eggman pushed another button, which launched two giant lasers towards the group of Mobians, then pressed another button that weakened the barrier, so that the beams could penetrate it and destroy anything within. As Eggman continued to laugh, the machines positions and directions were suddenly changed, forcing the beams to fire away from Eggman's appointed target.

The Mobians easily broke through the barrier, now that Eggman had weakened it. Eggman gawked in fear of the group that had, not so long ago, been at his mercy.

"Er… gotta go."

With that, he sped off on his Egg Mobile once again… The Mobians looked around to see what had saved them and found Silver, a silver psychokinetic hedgehog from the Future, and Blaze, a pyrokinetic cat who is a princess in a different dimension, standing not too far from them. The group ran over to thank the two, but Silver had fainted… hours later, the silver hedgehog woke up in a bed, he looked around to find Blaze sleeping in another bed beside his own. A door opened and Silver heard a familiar voice.

"Hm? Hey! He's up!"

Silver turned to the door to find Sonic the Hedgehog, who was soon accompanied by others.

"What… happened?"

"Don't you remember? You saved us from Eggman!"

"Eggman… Ah! That's right! You were all being attacked by Eggman! Ouch!" Silver winced in pain and grabbed his left shoulder. Amy was the first one to tell him not to move too much.

"Careful! The nurse said that you had multiple injuries and fractured bones."

"Yeah, speaking of which. What happened to you?" asked Sonic.

Silver searched his memories to find what he was doing before then. Silver's eyes widened at the memory, and he started to tremble with fear. He started to mumble something. Sonic listened closely to figure out what Silver was mumbling about.

"H-He's back… Even though we destroyed him… he's back…"

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… The figure appeared once more, but this time in a dark place with only enough light to see the surroundings. It opened up a chest that was near a wall, and placed the orbs that it had collected into the said chest. As it placed its last orb inside, a voice spoke to it from across the room.

"So you have not completed your mission, Umbra?"

The figure's name is finally revealed. Umbra closed the chest, and faced the direction that the voice was coming from. It responded to the voice.

"Mission… Incomplete… Yours?"

"I see that you've noticed. Yes, I was only able to reunite Silver and Blaze, but they noticed my presence and tried to fight back… In the end, they ran away before I could obtain their dark cores."

"Soon… They… weaken…"

"Yes, but the last four will pose as a challenge to us, since we are in our weakened forms"

"…Seven… left…"

"What! Who are the three that we missed!"

"... Two Robotnik… One Racoon…"

"… Very well, I will handle the doctor, but you will handle the other two. "

"… Fine… Handle them first…"

The person Umbra was speaking to was about to leave, but then stopped to ask it another question.

"Do they perhaps… remember me?"

"…Time creature… Restoration… Memory… Yes… Solaris Mind… 'Mephiles the Dark.'…"

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"Who is it, Silver? Who's back?" Sonic tried to calm Silver down, so that he could answer, but a nurse entered.

"Excuse me, but visiting hours are over. I'm afraid you will have to come back tomorrow. "

Although Sonic wanted an answer, he knew that Silver was still recovering, so he left for him to rest… The group left the hospital at around 11:00 PM, and the moon was shining brightly. As soon as the group had left the hospital's entry lights, a sharp pain coursed through all of them except Espio. Espio looked around to grasp the situation. He called out for help to the hospital. Doctors and Nurses came running out to see what was going on, and helped Espio bring them back into the hospital.

The doctors couldn't find anything physically wrong with them, but they passed out as if they had lost a lot of blood. They let Espio stay after visiting hours because of the strange anomaly happening to all of his friends. When the doctors and nurses left, Espio was in the room that Charmy and Vector were in.

Espio soon came to think that there might have been something attacking their minds or souls. Espio used a sort of ninjutsu that allowed him to peer into their state of minds, and found nothing different, but when he peered into their souls, he was almost blinded by an intense light. He quickly ended the ninjustsu without a second thought.

Espio was still confused about what happened to their souls, but knew what was wrong with them. Unfortunately, neither he nor the doctors had anything to help them. Espio thought about it for a while and came to a conclusion that Tails might have the technology and the ability to create a device that can help them, but that would have to wait until later, for now he must rest as well…

The morning arrived, and everyone was awake once again. The doctors explained to them that it was Espio that had helped them. They proceeded to thank Espio, and go about their daily lives, but Tails stopped everyone after noticing Espio's troubled look. Tails asked the most simple, but direct question to see what troubled him.

"What's wrong, Espio?"

"… There is something I must tell you all."

The group started to listen closely to Espio.

"Last night, I peered into the souls of Charmy and Vector, and I found nothing but light. I am concerned that the same can be said of the rest of you."

"What's wrong with having a soul with only light, Espio?" Although Charmy was the one who asked the question, mostly everyone was wondering the same thing.

"… When a soul is filled with only darkness, their being becomes powerful, but their mind becomes warped, to the point where they think that their sole purpose of living is to destroy anything that they see. You would think that having a soul filled only with light would be good, but that is an illusion. Although it does not affect the person's state of mind, a person with this kind of soul would be rejected from darkness. Within places where little light can pierce the darkness, they would experience intense pain within their very being of existence. If they were to stay within darkness for too long, or enter an area of complete shadow, then they would not only die, they would be destroyed in both body and spirit."

"…So a person with a dark soul is blinded from their own actions, while a person with a light soul can't go walking around dark places."

Said Vector, while trying to simplify Espio's words. Charmy, being himself, came up with an idea that was simple and true.

"If that's the case, then all we have to do is sleep with the lights on!"

"It's not that simple, Charmy", responded Espio. "We all need our darkness in order to tap into our latent strength. Without it, we will become helpless as evils such as Doctor Eggman attack us, even during the day. "

"What did this to us? Why?" asked Tails.

"I do not know why, but-"

Espio's sentence was cut off by a loud scream that came from Silver and Blaze's hospital room. They ran up to the room to see what was happening. When they opened the door, they found a person who looked like Shadow literally pulling the darkness out of Silver. Rouge instantly remembered who it was.

"Y-You're Mephiles!"

"Let Silver go!"

Sonic got ready for a fight, but Mephiles simply shrugged the idea off his shoulder.

"My, my. How rude of you to make demands of a stranger."

A tainted silver orb appeared in Mephiles' right hand, while in the left hand was a purple orb. Silver fainted soon after the silver orb's creation. Mephiles was tossing the silver orb up into the air and catching it, in a mocking gesture.

"Heheheh, I'll just be taking these."

"No you won't!"

Espio threw multiple shuriken, each of which hitting Mephiles, and one was embedded into Mephiles' forehead. Usually this would kill a person instantly, but Mephiles just laughed. The shuriken completely sunk into his body, and then he spat them out with his non-existent mouth. The shuriken came close, but did not hit anyone.

Mephiles: Did you really think that you would be able to defeat me so easily? … Hm!

Mephiles had felt something was off; Umbra did not take the chameleon's dark orb yet.

"So Umbra had the right ticket, but the wrong destination. Must have gotten sidetracked with a fight or something."

"What are you talking about! Who's 'Umbra'!"

"Why don't you ask your chameleon friend? He's encountered Umbra before."

As Mephiles disappeared, Sonic and friends looked at Espio.

"What did he mean?"

"… It happened a few nights ago…"

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Well, that was fun. If you are confused on anything in the story, just wait. Like I said at the top of the page, all will be explained soon enough. SEEYA'S!


	3. The Darkness Within Part 3

DISCLAIMER: All characters, places, and anything else that belongs to the Sonic the Hedgehog Universe, does not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners.

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Hey there! This time, we're going to check up on what Umbra is doing. Don't worry, it's not going to be all about him. You'll see soon enough. Oh! And Shadow might appear soon too! Just not now. Enjoy!

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… Umbra was traveling through a Time/Space Rift searching for the dimension that held a certain raccoon, and the time when a certain Robotnik family member was still alive. It noticed the raccoon it was looking for in one of the portals and then proceeded through to obtain the dark core, only for the portal to disappear, causing Umbra to enter a different portal.

It took a while, but Umbra regained consciousness in a forest. It looked around for the portal back to the Space/Time Rift, but it was nowhere to be found. Umbra walked around, and heard loud screams. It made its way to the screams, curious about what was happening. It saw a Mobian squirrel get carried off by two flying robots. Umbra was about to leave, disappointed that it was just a mere kidnapping, until it heard other voices. It looked again and found Sonic the hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and some others that were not with the first two in the other dimension. They seemed to be in trying to rescue the squirrel. Umbra revealed himself to investigate.

"Huh? Who're you?" asked Sonic.

Umbra remained silent.

"Uh, Hello?"

Tails thought for a moment and came to a conclusion, saying,

"Sonic, I think this guy knows where they took Aunt Sally!

"Really! Do you know where they took her!

Umbra remained silent.

"Say something already!"

"… Weak…" Muttered Umbra.

"What?"

"… Must return… Sonic here… Weak…"

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not weak!"

"… Prove… There…"

Umbra pointed to an isolated area of the forest.

"… One hour…"

"What! I can't do that! My friends and I have to rescue Sally!"

"… Squirrel… That is all?"

"Uh, Tails, do you have any idea what this guy's saying anymore?"

Tails shrugged and said, "I lost track after a while, but I think it's saying that it will help us."

"Really? I guess you're not such a bad guy after all!"

"Wait… Time… agree?"

"Uh, sure. I guess."

Umbra searched for the squirrel's location, trying to sense for the darkness within the squirrel's heart. Once it found her, Umbra melted into the ground, leaving a slight feeling of creepiness with Sonic and friends…

Sally Acorn was sitting in a containment cell, waiting for the moment that her fellow freedom fighters would come to her rescue. The people who had kidnapped her were part of a small-time terrorist group that were trying to use her as a means to make their name more widely known. A soldier came up to her cell and started to mock her.

Soldier: Don't worry, princess. We'll let you go as soon as your mommy and daddy follows our demands.

Sally gave the soldier a ticked off look, as he laughed a bit more. When the soldier left, she sighed and started to wait once again. Out of sheer boredom, she looked at her shadow, and then noticed that something strange was happening with it.

A figure started to emerge from her shadow, growing and soon separating from the shadow it had emerged from. It was Umbra. Sally flinched in surprise when seeing it.

"… Sally?"

"Y-Yes. Who are you?"

"…Sonic… Rescue… Fight…"

When she heard Sonic's name, she just knew that this was some kind of rescue set up by the hedgehog hero himself.

"Did Sonic send you to help me? Can you get us out of here the same way you came?"

"… Cannot… transport… two… new exit…"

Sally was slightly disappointed, but either way, she was going to get out of that jail cell.

"So how are we going to get out of here?"

Umbra placed its arm into the ground, merging the arm with its shadow. The shadow stretched its way out and away from the cell, and brought back the soldier that had been mocking her a minute ago. He was in a puppet like state and was forced to open the cell door.

After Sally left the cell, Umbra enveloped the soldier in darkness and swallowed him whole. This scared her for multiple obvious reasons. What surprised her more was what Umbra did afterwards. It morphed its appearance to look like the soldier it had eaten.

"This form… I will use it to speak clearly to you."

Sally was still creeped out from Umbra's actions, but decided to not think about it. As they proceeded to search for an exit, Sally remembered that she never really asked for her rescuer's name.

"What's your name anyway?"

"I am called 'Umbra'."

"... So how does Sonic know you?"

"This one does not. He is weak."

"What do you mean! He's saved our world countless times before!"

"The Sonic I found is much more powerful. If you have time to shout, then you have time to look for an exit."

Sally continued the search with a small pout as she began. They ran into guards and soldiers along the way, but they were easily dispatched by the duo. With time, Sally began to become more and more curious as to what the strange creature with her is supposed to be. Every now and then, Sally would glance at Umbra to try to satisfy her curiosity, but she simply could not figure out what it was. Every time she looked, she found a slight difference in its appearance. The form of the soldier looked like it was melting.

"Uh…"

"If it's about this form melting, then I'll give you a brief explanation."

Umbra spoke to her while still searching for a way out.

"Although I can morph into different forms, I cannot hold it for long, before I revert back to my original form. My ability helps me with some of my missions, but other than that I have little to no need for it."

"Missions?" Sally tried to get more information on what Umbra meant, but the creature would speak no more.

They searched for a few hours more, and finally found a door that didn't lead to another mess of doorways or cells. This time it led to a large laboratory with scientists studying a Yellow Chaos Emerald. Upon seeing it, Umbra had the idea that using a chaos emerald would allow it to escape the dimension.

Umbra transformed back into its original form and charged at it. The soldiers shot at it with little care about the scientists' lives. It wouldn't matter anyway; for Umbra just devoured them all the same way he did with the first soldier. It took the chaos emerald and proceeded to use dimensional control. Sally tried to stop it, thinking that it would do something that could destroy the area they were in, only to be dragged along as Umbra charged through a portal that showed where its target was.

Umbra's excitement towards the fact that it could return to its own world caused it to make another portal to that exact dimension and go through it with both Sally and its target. Sally watched in terror as Umbra started to drain a poor raccoon girl of her darkness.

This process was stopped once again, but this time it came from a beam of light that hit its arm. Umbra screamed in pain. Umbra looked around to see the person responsible for hurting it. It saw a woman who was dressed entirely in white clothing.

"KAMI!" exclaimed Umbra in a raging voice.

The woman did not speak, but merely stood in the air looking displeased at Umbra. Sally was too busy getting the raccoon girl away from Umbra to notice the person who had attacked Umbra. Umbra tried to attack the woman with any attack it had, but nothing worked.

"KAMI! KAMI!"

The woman whispered something that Umbra could not understand, and suddenly Umbra was in the middle of a desert. In a fit of rage Umbra ate anything that got in its way, as it charged through the desert trying to find its target and its enemy.

… Sally and the raccoon girl were resting somewhere in the forest.

"What WAS that thing?"

"Well, I THOUGHT it was a good creature, but it seems that I was wrong."

"Ya got that right mate. Thanks for helping me out there, though I would've found a way out that mess myself. My name's Marine, by the way!"

"I'm Sally Acorn."

They were not resting for long when they heard a rustling of the leaves. They hid as best as they could, waiting to see who or what the thing approaching is. They waited and saw a figure dressed in white walking through. Although both of them saw the strange person, they saw the person differently. Sally saw the person as her mother, Alicia, while Marine saw the person as Blaze the cat.

"Blaze!"

"Mom!"

Both of them looked at each other in confusion. Then Marine asked,

"Blaze is your mother?"

"My mom's name is Alicia, not Blaze!"

The person person in white coughed to get their attention. Sally and Marine both quieted down and listened to the person in white.

"Thank you. I am neither Blaze the Cat, nor Queen Alicia. I am called 'Illumini'."

"But you look exactly like my mother!" said Sally. "Except for the clothes, of course."

"I am seen by others in the form of their caretakers. For some, I am seen as their mothers, older siblings, best friends, etc. But that is an unrelated matter. You are still in danger of Umbra's attacks."

"You know Umbra?"

"Yes. Umbra and I had a… difficult relationship, and for some reason, he refers to me as 'Kami.' Oh! And for the people reading, yes. Umbra is in fact a male."

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, until Marine said, "Who're you talking to, mate?"

"Oh, no one. Anyway, both of you have to find the Sonic of this dimension. They can protect you, and maybe you two can help them with their own dilemma."

"But I must return to my own world!" Protested Sally, thinking of all of the people she could help defend.

"Do not worry, there are not many events going on in your 'Prime' dimension, and you are necessary for this dimension to survive. After all of this is over, you WILL return to your world. Isn't that right, author?"

Please stop trying to break the fourth wall, Illumini.

"No promises."

Marine started whispering to Sally. She was asking why she keeps talking to people who are non-existent. Illumini heard every word.

"You two should go now. Sonic and his friends are just a few miles Northwest from here. That would be… that direction."

Illumini pointed in the direction of Northwest. The two girls said their goodbyes to the possibly insane woman-

"I HEARD that."

-and started heading to the direction that she had pointed to. It took a while, but they found their way to a small town, and they began their search for Sonic. They looked all around to find the blue hedgehog. They asked everyone if they had seen Sonic, but every time they found a hint or a lead, they found a dead end.

Hours passed and they still had no luck in finding Sonic. They decided to rest for the night at an inn. They got a small room, but it was cozy and had two beds. They got into bed and went to sleep…

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Well, that was interesting. By the way, It says in the beginning of each comic that Mobius and the world Sonic is on in the video games, are two different worlds altogether, and are just two different VERSIONS of Sonic the Hedgehog. Just to clear things up. Anyway thanks for reading! SEEYA'S!


	4. The Darkness Within Part 4

DISCLAIMER: All things that are from the Sonic the Hedgehog video games, TV shows, comics, or anything belong to their respective owners. Not me.

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Hey there! Its time for another part of this Fan Fiction! Pieces of the story are starting to meet up, but they aren't together just yet! We still have a few preparations to make first! You'll see... Enjoy!

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The time was 3:00 AM, and Tails was working on a special device. This device would protect him and his friends from being harmed by darkness. Sonic came into the lab with a yawn. He (along with Tails and his other friends) have not been getting much sleep. Their predicament forced them into sleeping with all the lights on.

"Hey, buddy. How's your device going?

"Hey, Sonic. I think I've got it to do what we need it to do, but I need to test it first to see how well it works."

"I'll test it out."

"Really? You will?"

"It's better than standing around doing nothing all night. Besides, I'm not running around as much as before. I need to see if I still got it."

"It hasn't been THAT long, Sonic."

"I know, but it doesn't really feel right if I don't do my usual routine."

"(Sigh) Okay, fine. I'll go get Espio."

A half hour later, Sonic, Tails, and Espio were all outside. Espio held a torch that emitted enough tight to keep them protected from darkness. Tails gives Sonic two black-colored rings. Sonic places the rings onto his wrists. Sonic's fur color darkened slightly, but aside from that, there was not anything different about him.

"Okay, Sonic. I need you to run around the town a few times."

"Sure, but what should I do if the rings' power runs out?"

"If that happens, then this will emit a light on you until you make it back here."

Tails set a bag he was carrying on the ground, and opened it up. Out of it popped up a flying robotic chao.

"Hey! It's Omochao!"

"Yep!" the mechanical chao said. "Tails called me over and told me about your situation. He modified me with a light that will protect you, should anything bad happen."

"Okay, but can you keep up?"

"I have before. Just don't make any sharp turns near walls, please."

"Sure thing."

With that, Sonic started running. Omochao kept up with Sonic's speed as best as he could, and Sonic tried his best to not make any sharp turns near walls. It took Sonic about one hour to run around the town over 700 times. Sonic continued running for about 10 minutes before a strange sensation hit him.

The power of the black rings started to fade as Sonic's fur color started to revert back to its usual shade of blue. Omochao noticed Sonic slowing down and activated the light modification that Tails did. Omochao's eyes shined brightly, and Omochao floated back a bit to enlarge the area of light. The sensation that Sonic felt faded away.

Sonic decided to take the last lap around a bit more easily, considering that Omochao's light might not stay on him if he went full speed. When they made it back to Tails and Espio, Omochao turned its light modification off.

"Are you okay, Sonic?"

"I'm fine, Tails. Thanks for asking. Anyway, what about the rings?"

"It only works for little more than an hour, but at least it works."

"That's good."

Espio felt a sudden chill of cold air. He had a bad feeling, but he wanted to make sure that it wasn't just a feeling, so he focused his senses to search for anything abnormal in his surroundings.

"…! I sense darkness nearby. We should return to the laboratory."

"Yeah. I don't have a very good feeling about this either."

With that, the group made their way back to the lab. As they were walking, Espio sensed that the dark aura was getting closer. Although it was a far distance from the town, it seemed to be gaining speed. Espio told Tails and Sonic to quicken their pace. The dark aura was getting closer. They started picking up their own pace back. No matter how fast they went or how much they looked, they couldn't seem to find their way back to the lab. Espio started thinking why this was happening. They weren't THAT far from the lab when they left. Gradually he came to a realization. He slowed to a stop, with Sonic and Tails.

"What's wrong, Espio?" asked Tails.

"I can't believe I was so easily tricked..." Espio then gave the torch to Sonic.

"Take Tails to the lab."

"What? What about you?" asked the hedgehog.

"I said GO!" Espio exclaimed. He turned to Sonic and Tails, revealing something  
unexpected. Half of Espio's body had been distorted to a demonic look. Sonic and Tails were overtaken by fear for only a moment, but the hedgehog understood Espio's feelings. Sonic grabbed Tails by the arm and dashed off, keeping a slow enough speed to keep the torch burning.

Espio tried to scream out in pain, but not a sound emitted from his physical body. Within his mind; however, was a different story. Espio was chained to an invisible wall. He struggled to get free, but it was useless. In front of him was a reflection of himself. This reflection looked exactly like him, except for the eyes being black with yellow pupils.

"...Can you speak?" Espio said to the reflection.

"Heh. So NOW you talk to me." The reflection said with a small grin. "What do you want?"

"I know who you are. You are the darkness within me. You prey on every destructive action I do."

"Yes, I am and I do. I know what I am. Now ask me the question you REALLY want to ask.

"...Very well. How are you taking control of my body?"

The reflection stopped grinning. It seems that Espio did not ask the question it was waiting for.

"Let's face it, Espio. You and your friends can't handle the dangers up ahead. And I don't want to disappear. If you want your enemies plan to fail, then I'll have to take over."

"What do you mean?"

"Your enemies are searching for us, the dark cores embedded within the mind and spirit of each individual. They are planning to use us as tributes to a creature that WILL be the end of your world."

"Hmph. We've faced creatures like that before. What makes the next one different?"

"You fool, LISTEN! We are the reason you all even SURVIVED all those battles. Without us, your abilities in combat are WORTHLESS. Light may guide your way, but it was always darkness that helped you fight."

The reflection started to change. His look became more demonic and menacing.

"This is not good! He is getting closer to us!"

"Who is? Umbra?"

"Yes! now quickly! Let me take over, so that I can stop him!"

"What if you're lying! For all I know, you could be planning on helping him!"

"We do not have time for this! He's-!"

Back in the physical world, Umbra had appeared. He looked at the chameleon and saw his body slowing transforming.

"...Defying...?"

Umbra's arm went straight through Espio's body, allowing him entrance into the chameleon's mind. He appeared in between Espio and the dark reflection.

"Quickly, Espio! Release me!" ordered the reflection.

Espio was still enveloped in surprise, which was not good considering that Umbra was walking toward the dark reflection. Espio snapped himself out of the state of surprise and started focusing on releasing his dark self. It strained him, but right as Umbra's hand was about to grab the dark reflection's head, it fell off.

Umbra staggered back away from the demonic reflection of Espio, who was holding a kunai.

"Now you're going to die, Umbra!" exclaimed the reflection.

"... Fight..."

They started the battle. The Reflection (We'll call it Dark Espio) charged to Umbra and started slashing with quick slices. Umbra just barely dodged them, easily getting cut by the tip of the kunai knife. Dark Espio was able to knock Umbra down, but before he could do anything else, Umbra's legs stretched in painful-looking ways, and kicked dark Espio away. Umbra stood up and slammed his arm into what seemed to be ground in Espio's mind. The arm turned into a stretching shadow that split into multiple appendages. They crossed each other while quickly traveling toward dark Espio. Dark Espio tried to run away from the shadows, which tried to stab him. When the shadows finally managed to catch up, they stabbed through him with ease. However, when Umbra tried to force dark Espio into an orb form, pain seized Umbra. Multiple shuriken were embedded into Umbra's back. Umbra knew who threw them. Dark Espio revealed himself while his illusion disappeared. Umbra collapsed, giving dark Espio a chance to finish him off. A dark aura enveloped the kunai knife, and dark Espio used it to create an executioner's blade. Dark Espio raised the weapon high, with the blade end facing downward, and as he brought it down, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. He looked down and saw two things. One was Umbra's body with the executioner's blade in the back of his head, and the other was a pitch black claw sticking out of dark Espio's stomach. It seemed that Umbra's severed hand was remotely controlled by Umbra.

Dark Espio's body turned into energy and streamed into the severed claw until it was a black orb with a white shuriken symbol in it. The real Espio watched in horror as Umbra stood up. All of the weapons that pierced Umbra's flesh sunk deeper into him, disappearing into a dark abyss. Umbra picked up his severed claw and reattached it to his body. Now that Espio's dark core was finally in possession, Umbra disappeared with it. The sudden loss of energy forced Espio to faint. When he woke up, it was morning, and Sonic and Tails were carrying him towards the lab.

"W-what happened?" asked Espio.

"We were worried about you, so we came back." Said Sonic.

"We found you unconscious, so we decided to carry you back to the lab." Tails added.

Espio had a harsh headache, he would have told them about the events of the previous night, but he was too drained for that at the moment. Instead, he would decide to tell them after he got some rest. He felt like he was forgetting something important, but he ignored it for the moment, his head hurts too much as is.

The group returned to the lab, not knowing that a fierce battle was taking place a few miles away on a small mountain.

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Well that's that. You guys are probably wondering what happened to Shadow and Eggman. Well don't worry! Just wait for the next chapter! If you have any tips for me (that doesn't involve manipulation of the story), then please review! Anyways...SEEYA'S!


	5. The Darkness Within Part 5

DISCLAIMER: all characters from Sonic the Hedghog belong to their respective owners.

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FINALLY! I finished this chapter! Now we're back to the battle between Shadow and Eggman! Any questions you may be wondering of about what the heck's going on, might be answered through this chapter, if your questions are not answered, then they probably will be soon!

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Eggman searched around the wasteland that was created during his and Shadow's previous battle, searching for the black and red hedgehog. The two had been in combat multiple times every day, since their encounter at the GUN base. And every time they fought, Eggman escaped with Rouge still in his captivity. They took their battle everywhere, destroying anything in the way, including, unfortunately, some towns and villages. Their recent battle had just destroyed a town that was centered around an ancient temple. The houses were either destroyed or burning, the ground was filled with dust, and the people who had once inhabited this place were all gone.

Shadow was hiding among the ruins of a desert temple that was destroyed, catching his breath and regaining his energy. He had never seen Eggman so powerful before, it's like Shadow couldn't even touch him. Rouge was still in Eggman's captivity, being drained of her own energy to power Eggman's machine with the emeralds. She was probably on the verge of death at this point. If Shadow didn't take Eggman down soon, then another friend will die. Shadow will NOT let that happen.

Shadow regained enough energy to fight, and he had a plan that might save Rouge... Eggman was floating around the ruins in his Egg Mobile, searching for Shadow.

"Oh, Shadow! Come out, come out, wherever you are! I've taken precious time out of my schedule to play with you for a while, and you're wasting it, playing a game of Hide N' Seek? I expected more from you."

Eggman fired a volley of missiles and brought down the remains of the temple. as it crumbled to the ground, creating dust, Eggman saw Shadow's image running out of the destruction. He fired some more missiles, this time firing ones that homed in on Shadow. Shadow easily evaded the missiles, what he really needed to worry about was Eggman's electric force field. Eggman drained Rouge's energy and used the power of the chaos emeralds to create an almost impenetrable force field, surrounded by electricity. Shadow dashed toward Eggman, but before he could get near him, the force field sprung to life. Shadow forced his body to stop where it was, almost touching the electric barrier.

Shadow put his plan into action. Shadow focused his energy, and created a Chaos Spear. He threw the spear at Eggman, penetrating the force field and destroying Eggman's machine. Shadow caught Rouge as she fell, and Eggman landed on the ground right next to them.

"I didn't expect you to force me into a situation where I would have to use a Chaos Spear. But, either way, I won. Now beat it."

Shadow started walking away with Rouge still in his arms. Suddenly he heard Eggman laughing.

"Hahahahahaha! Don't you want to know, Shadow? Don't you want to know what happened at that GUN base?"

Shadow turned back around to see what Eggman was talking about, only to find Eggman's body melting into a black puddle of ooze.

"I'll tell you why they had your pod. I'll tell you what they were trying to contain."

Eggman's voice started to transgress into a more sinister, more murderous voice.

"They were trying to contain ME!"

The puddle of ooze formed back to together to reveal Mephiles.

"Mephiles!" yelled Shadow in surprise.

Shadow was about to fight Mephiles, but remembered that the fight would put Rouge in harm's way. Shadow decided to flee for the moment to put Rouge in a safe place. Mephiles fired Dark Spears at Shadow. Shadow managed to dodge the spears and successfully escape Mephiles. He hid with Rouge in an abandoned warehouse. As he rested for a moment, Rouge stirred herself awake.

"Rouge! Are you alright?" asked Shadow with worry in his voice.

"Yes, Shadow. I'm FINE." Rouge's arms turned into black ooze and enveloped Shadow's body.

"M-Mephiles!"

Rouge transformed into Mephiles.

"Yes. I knew you would be troublesome, so I set up a little trap for you."

One of his arms reverted back from ooze to an arm.

"As much as I want to kill you, I want to see you to squirm in pain as you struggle to win the future battles. So I'll just take what I need from you."

Mephiles extracted the darkness from within Shadow. Shadow started screaming in agonizing pain. When the process was finished, Shadow collapsed to the ground, unable to get up do to the pain. As Mephiles walked away with Shadow's red and black Darkness orb, he took one last look at Shadow and said,

"By the way, Shadow the Hedgehog, those battles before. I did them just for the thrill of it." Mephiles walked away laughing.

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I know it's a shorter chapter than the others, but I've been busy with school and family things. I have to admit that I kind of rushed this, so it's not exactly what I wanted. SorryAnd if you don't think that Mephiles can change forms...then good for you. Please review fairly.


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